Hypothetically, if someone is interested in becoming a researcher on communicable diseases, what would be the best course of undergraduate and graduate study?

My best guess is that at the graduate level, they'd be studying microbiology, immunology, maybe pharmacology.

At the undergraduate level, microbiology seems like a good prep for the necessary graduate studies. What about other majors? Would biochemistry be good undergraduate prep for eventually becoming a biomedical researcher on communicable diseases? How would a b.s. in biochemistry prepare you differently than a b.s. in microbiology?

Also, related question: besides communicable diseases, are there other fields of biomedical research with major application to the third world? I'm interested in third world medicine, but not in clinical medicine so much as in basic research and translational research. Communicable disease seems to be the biggest under-addressed medical need in the third world, but there must be other major needs as well.

Your suggestsions sound right, depending on what your University offer. I would also suggest a healthy dose of molecular biology (to go beyond what is offered in those courses). Stats are amore than useful, so is computer programming (for biology in general)

As for other subject, I would say that public health and epidemiology would have direct medical application all over the world.

Patrick

Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without
any proof. (Ashley Montague)